Thoughts from the interface of science, religion, law and culture

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

EVENTS

Awww. Poor Candidate is Getting Criticized

You’ll weep crocodile tears after you stop laughing at the hyperbolic language of this article. “BULL’S-EYE ON CANDIDATE FOR SUPPORTING MARRIAGE,” the headline screams, with the subhead “Congressional hopeful ‘inundated by left’ after endorsing traditional family.” What’s that mean? It means he’s being criticized.

Dean Young, a candidate for Congress in Alabama’s first district, says he’s being “inundated by the left” for his endorsement of traditional marriage and his request that fellow Republican primary candidates do the same…

The story says: “Alabama Republican Dean Young, a candidate for the congressional seat of retiring Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Ala., is not a fan of gay rights. So, in an effort to make opposition to gay marriage a key issue in the crowded GOP primary race, Young unveiled a pledge this week asking his opponents to affirm their religious faith and opposition to LGBT rights.”

But Young said he’s not “anti-gay” and that his purpose in calling for his fellow Republicans to pledge support is based on solid moral and historical principles.

“We’re very close to being at the end of our nation. If we don’t support the godly principles that made this nation great, then we’re going to lose this nation,” he said.

Yeah, he’s not anti-gay. He just thinks that protecting their rights will destroy the nation, that’s all.

Young admits to being taken aback by the amount of attention his call for a pro-family pledge has received.

“I had no idea that this would turn into a national onslaught and that the Huffington Post and other liberal papers would think that’s such a bizarre thing that I did,” he said.

Yes, I’m sure you’re just flabbergasted to find out that people disagree with you and might criticize you when you say something stupid and bigoted. You should probably get used to it if you’re going to be in Congress.

Young admits to being taken aback by the amount of attention his call for a pro-family pledge has received.

I tend to believe that this goober lives in such an insular little world that he didn’t realize that the entire nation’s views on this issue have massively changed and that his bigoty would attract a lot of national attention. He might have some small complaint if he was running for dogcatcher of Armpit, Alabama but he’s running for Congress, where his actions can affect all Americans.

He should be called out for claiming that he is “supporting marriage” or even “supporting traditional marriage”. He’s not doing either. He’s just trying to deny same-sex couples the right to marry. Traditional marriage will sail merrily along whether gay and lesbian couples are allowed to marry or not. I’m not aware of any supporter of same-sex marriage who is trying to deny anyone a “traditional marriage”.

Read your Bible! The most basic one of all is “invade the lands where other people are living and take if from them by any means possible.” One of the more popular approaches was “kill all of the men [1] and make sex slaves of the women.”

And indeed, the United States did become great by applying those principles.

[1] Trickery — slaughter under a false offer of peace — was a good approach. Consider Shechem, for instance.

That’s really amusing. Sour grapes; Young found one of the few examples of bad publicity, and now he’s wailing because it’s bad. He is right about one thing: support for his pledge will indeed be one of the things that distinguishes the various candidates in this race. Sadly for him, instead of 8 other candidates signing on and so making him look like a leader, the others are now going to avoid it and use it to make him look unelectable.

I’m reminded of the poker play where there are multiple players in a hand, with one person having gone all in very early (preflop or just after the flop). The others just check down to maximize the chance of the elimination. Well, I bet the other candidates are going to check this issue down.

The most basic one of all is “invade the lands where other people are living and take if from them by any means possible. One of the more popular approaches was “kill all of the men [1] and make sex slaves of the women.””

I’m reminded of the poker play where there are multiple players in a hand, with one person having gone all in very early (preflop or just after the flop). The others just check down to maximize the chance of the elimination.

Provided that the person who went all in is short stacked. If they have a big stack and the other players are putting a substantial amount of their stacks at risk it would be a different story.

People have taken him down pretty thoroughly on the gay issues…what I’d like to see is for someone to ask him, point blank, what the US Constitution says about religious standing when comes to being an elected official. (I know the answer, as does–no doubt–everyone else here…but does he?)

I so dearly want someone to point to an interpretation of the bible that refers to truck nuts.

I don’t recall the precise passage, but it’s right after the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch

“And the lord saweth the truck nuts and declared that they were the proper and holy nuts of any good Christian truck. When he saw that Bubba’s truck also was endowed with a Confederate flag and lifted four cubits above the slithering creatures, he declared “thou truly rideth with the lord. Amen.”